Recent Tasting Notes

The dry leaves smell spicy. I’m thinking allspice and white pepper. This is not what I was expecting, but I like it. After brewing for three minutes the liquid is indeed a copper color. Very pretty. The tea is creamy, almost buttery but… blah. It’s alright, but definitely nothing to write home about.

I won’t have a problem finishing this, but it is not a tea I’ll go out of my way to find and purchase.

Preparation

Made this as an iced tea to sip on while I cook dinner. This is much, much better iced than as a cold brew. The only way to keep this from being bitter is a short steep time, but as long as I babysit it while it steeps I get a nice peachy tea.

I still have quite a bit of this left. I’m tempted to fix a pitcher of it just to use it up. Part of me wishes I liked this as much as I used to, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. Oh well.

This is one of my older teas, and I still have quite a bit of it. In an attempt to sip it down I’m drinking it iced. The peach flavor is ok, and I still enjoy the woody note, but I’m definitely not as in love with this one as I used to be. It’s alright, but there are other peach teas that I enjoy much, much more.

Preparation

Had this one earlier this evening. I sweetened it and added some half and half because I wanted a creamy note to the tea. I still really like the peach and wood note in this tea. I’m not sure I even tasted apricot this time, but that’s ok. This was still yummy,

I over sweetened this, so it wasn’t as good as it should have been. I think I also steeped it a little too long. It was entirely drinkable, but what should have been a lovely peach-y cup was just so-so due to operator error.

Cold brewed this and have been sipping it sweetened with some simple syrup. The peach flavor is nice, and I even tasted more of the apricot notes this time. The next time I make this I think I’m going to hot brew it and then ice it so that I get more of the woody flavor as well.

I woke up this morning wanting summer. Not sure if I had some great summery dream or if I’m just tired of being cold (or both), but since summer is still a ways off I thought I’d enjoy a summery tea instead.

When I make this tea I have to baby it because it can turn into a bitter mess really fast, but when I make it properly it’s so nice. The peach flavor is fruity and juicy, and even though I don’t taste the apricot I find that I don’t miss it. This morning I added a touch of milk to my cup and thought about homemade peach ice cream and picnics. I’m not one for picnics on frozen ground, but I will be making a batch of peach ice cream this weekend. Take that, winter. :p

Preparation

Every time I drink this tea I think of peach orchards and barbecues. The peach orchard I understand because of the woody flavor that combines with the stone fruit. Barbecue? There’s no smokey note. Not even a hint. I have no idea why that pops into my head. Strange.

I know this is not a high quality tea, but there’s something about it that I really enjoy. The fruit flavors (more peach than apricot) and the woody note just work for me. I do wish the base tea was a higher quality, but regardless I’ll keep drinking this. It’s a good one.

I brewed this for iced tea. I ended up overleafing in an attempt to use up the last of this tea. On top of using too much leaf, I also got distracted and allowed my infuser basket to sit in the water too long. Not surprising, I ended up with a rather bitter cup. This really was a nice tea, so in an attempt to do it justice I’m going to resteep the leaves in a larger container and see if I can make one last glass of iced tea that has all of the peach, apricot, and woodsy flavors I like. So a sipdown, but not.

This one has been languishing in my tea cupboard, so I decided to cold brew it. It is great this way! There’s still the peach and woodsy flavors, and I can pick up the apricot notes that I was missing from the hot tea. I added some simple syrup to my glass, and it really helped highlight the fruity flavors. Like it!

I haven’t had this one in a while, so the woodsy note caught me off guard at first. The fruit comes at the end of the sip which is lovely, but the initial taste is of bark or fruit wood (also nice!). This is a great morning cup to help chase away the winter blahs.

Every summer a dear friend of mine goes on a family vacation to Ocean City, NJ. While she is away I tend her garden, take care of her pets, and a few other little things. In return I get to eat anything from her garden that happens to be ripe. Given that her family’s vacation is in August, when her garden is in full bloom, I consider this a very generous payment. However, she always brings me back some little treasures. This year one of my gifts was five bags of loose leaf tea. She did the same thing for me last year, and I think she could see how happy it made me just to look at the little bags!

This is a nice tea. I’m not sure what the base tea is, but it is smooth and not at all bitter. The flavor of the tea is not so much peach or apricot as it is orchard. It’s like walking in a fruit orchard and taking a deep breath. The smell of the bark, the grass, the leaves, and the fruit all combines to create a clean, fresh flavor. I like this much more than I would if it were just peach and apricot.

This is definitely a tea begging to be ice brewed, so I’ll probably do that this weekend. I’m also thinking about using it as part of a glaze for a roasted chicken. How yummy would that be?!?